Once you have the following, as well as some beans or seeds to sprout, you're ready to create life in your kitchen!

First, fill up the jar so you can't see the bottom when looking down. (You'll figure out what's good for you, but this is a good place to start.)

Next you'll want to fill the jar about 1/3rd of the way with water, make sure it covers all the seeds/beans with an extra inch or two. They'll expand quite a bit!

Leave it like this for 12-24hrs. If handy, empty and refill water once. Not necessary however.

After 24hrs, you'll want to drain out the water.....

....and then rinse the seeds/beans. You'll want to do this several times.

Once well-rinsed, use your container to allow the jar to sit on an angle to allow the extra water to drip out.

This is where things get a little busy - you'll want to rinse your sproutlings twice a day. I usually do this in the morning, and in the evening around dinnertime. Each time you rinse them, rinse several times, then leave to drain.

They say a cool, dark place is the best place for storing your sprouts. If you have room in a cupboard, that might be a good spot (as long as you won't forget about them!) I use a corner on the counter, seems to work fine!

After several days, you've hit paydirt!

Yummy, healthy sprouts waiting to be eaten!

I use a plastic container with holes and room for air to pass, otherwise they get mushy. Should last 3-5 days in the fridge, tho best to eat sooner than later.

Sprouts are an important part of my diet, so i've always got a couple jars on the go. In the pantry i keep all my sprouting seeds and beans together, and pre-mix my bean mix in a jar for quick and easy distribution.

When sprouting, best to keep the beans and seeds separate.

Some seeds and beans i like:

Beans (take 3-5 days to sprout)

mung beans

green lentils (other lentils are usually split and won't sprout)

red aduki beans

green peas (very yummy!)

chickpeas

Seeds (take 4-7 days to sprout)

broccoli seeds

red clover seeds

alfalfa seeds

A few other general tips:

don't try to sprout kidney beans, there is a toxic substance in them that needs to be neutralized with cooking. Most other beans are fine however.

alfalfa sprout shells are toxic, rinse in a large bowl of water when done to get rid of these (they float and sink, so easy to eliminate)

Thanks for the great sprouting howto Dave.I just started a batch (using a ripped up old t-shirt instead of a window screen until I can go to the store). How many days will it take until I get sprouts like yours?

Wow! That sounds fun! Now I want to do it just for the sake of doing it. Do the beans/seeds have to be fresh? I get some soup/chilli mixes so could i use those beans in there? I don't know if they did anything with them.

Thanks - I made my first sprouts! I couldn't get to a store for a screen so I just hammered holes in the jar's lid :) They started to out grow the jar so I moved them to a colander. It made rinsing really easy! haha. yum. I like the mung beans and big lentils the most (the smaller french lentils didn't sprout so much and the garbanzo beans i didn't like).

I have a sprouting jar that worked well, but not too well with broccoli seeds. The seeds are from NOW, the vitamin makers, specifically for sprouting.Is it just necessary to wait a whole week? Any special tricks to improve sprouting?

Rather than buying screen{not food grade} I'm using 1 of those mesh plastic bags garlic or onions come in,cut into squares. Planters glass jars are awesome! You can pop out the metal top leaving just the Plastic screw on lid(no more rust). So far I tried Pinto and Large White beans then read about the toxic thing, so I will cook them b4 eating, I'll post what they taste like cooked. I got some adzuki and mungs for my second try. Fingers crossed.=D

Oh ,By the way ,I meant Planters Peanuts glass jars. Isil , depending on where you live, some governments Heat treat all dry beans making them sterile/unsproutable. Also canned bean are NOT sproutable as they are already cooked. Word up Dave! thanks bro

Hello Dave and all - It has been awhile since this post was posted, so I suppose it won't get a lot of read, but I enjoyed your simple down home kitchen with pictures presentation of how to sprout. But I really wanted to advise you and your readers to look at the REAL info about the so-called toxic effects of these grains, legumes, nuts and seeds. Please check out annieappleseedproject for the truth. Also, the flax seed mucilage is jam-packed with vitamin E from the start. It is highly healing and comforting to the internal organs, and if rinsed away for the mucilage, I would do it carefilly so as to retain and drink the water with it's goldmine of nutrients, which will be far more desireable than the "toxins" that may come out in the original soak water are to be feared. Also the sprouting is well worth the effort, as the high-class and rich stores of omega fatty acids 3,6,9 are made easily available to the body.:)